CaptSopwith, I'm glad if this has helped you decide. I trust your choice was for the best, considering the circumstances (as I appreciate that only you truly can). I believe the upgrade will be a significant step forward for you. And congrats on the wedding. All the best to you and the future Mrs. Capt

Dutch, sorry if anything I'm saying seems confrontational to you - please be assured I mean no disrespect or ill will. I understand your points (and I also use that same PSU calculator as well; one of my favorites). BTW a 6pin 1060 as I suggested above, per spec, cannot exceed 150W. Only the 8pin models can. But I do feel your math is overlooking an important point: You can't subtract these values from 460W, for a few reasons:

1. Usage and heat fatigue over time dictate PSUs should be 'de-rated' as they age, as you know.

2. It is not given that this PSU (or any other) can output it's entire rated wattage 100% of the time, and especially not irrespective of temperature. Most do not, especially over about ~30-40 degrees C.

3. It is not wise nor efficient to operate a PSU at full load all the time. Efficiency varies a lot, but is broadly considered optimal in the 50% load range. Regardless, the efficiency of any PSU begins to deteriorate at a rapid slope as you move from 50% up toward 100%. Personally, I usually recommend trying to stay around 75% at most. As for the wisdom, it is all but absolute that running a PSU at 100% load all the time will shorten it's life span. Irrespective of how long or short it may have been otherwise, it will be shorter if the unit is forced to work at 100% any time it is on. Heat builds exponentially, and it destroys electronics over time. Finally, almost every PSU of this type will suffer far more noise/output fluctuations at the upper end of its rated output than toward the middle. Just adds to the potential for instability.

So, given all the above, I'd say this PSU - even if we assume optimal cooling and cleaning, and minimal usage for it's life thus far - should be 'de-rated' somewhat due to age/wear, and again due to overhead/efficiency/best practices. Between these factors, I don't feel it unreasonable to suggest we deduct ~20% from 460W, leaving us about 368W. If we then subtract even the lesser of the loads you cited (274W @ 12v), we are left with less than 100W for everything else in the PC - that is, the CPU, RAM and chipset, onboard devices such as network adapter and sound guts, as well as any drives, the system's fans, plus any external devices powered by the PSU such as with USB (TrackIR, joystick, pedals, mouse, keyboard...).

To be honest, I think it's pushing things too far to expect all that from 100W. As I listed above, per Intel that's an 84W CPU. If there are 4 sticks of memory, that's approaching 20W by itself (especially if high-speed/"XMS" type), and you can go on from there. I do factor in that these figures are maximum (including the GPU), and I said earlier that they usually operate a good deal lower. But, for the purpose of load calculations, it's best to use the max figures so you won't ever exceed that amount. The last thing anyone needs is things getting flaky when they're working hardest.

For these reasons, I believe it best to stay toward the conservative end of the scale in terms of GPU (and it's cheaper, too).

In fact, I usually take the GPU TDP and add 300W (rule of thumb/guideline) to rate a PSU - and then, of course, check that against good references. So far it seems to hold up well.

I hope you can understand.